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Milking the GenomeBy Britt Bailey Meet "Cookies" and "Cream." No, this is not an invitation to try a yummy ice cream flavor. These are the names of two members of a cloned dairy herd. They are exact replicas of each other. Unlike human twins which carry a random sampling of identical genes, these cattle carry a matching set of genes which have been designed to produce various types of pharmaceutical products. Once the calves are old enough, the engineered proteins in their milk will be mined and hopefully processed for drug testing. According to researchers, this model is fully justified on the grounds that we already expend precious time and resources trying to produce pharmaceuticals through synthesis and purification. With 100% efficiency, the cloned offspring of a suitably engineered transgenic animal could in theory produce a herd of lactating descendents, all making one, high value-added product. The savings in reproductive time can be astounding: milk-producing, cloned cows can be made in a mere two years. Of course, another added benefit is the ability to select and implant only the sought-after traits instead of fiddling around with the imprecise, time-honored practice of traditional breeding. Historically, most breeding applications, traditional or otherwise, have sought to improve lineages of animals and plants to better fit our needs. But, the sheer rush to transform animals for greater utility should give us pause. Persons who partake of animal products are beginning to opt for more humane care in the rearing of livestock. Should we accept the complete control and supremacy over the genetic nature of livestock? Keep in mind that once controlled via inserted genetic sequences, the change in an engineered animal and all its descendents is permanent. In the past, even though an animal was part of a captive breeding program, the changes imposed by human selection were limited by the genetic repertoire of the species. Now an engineered animal may be forever altered with totally alien genes for the sake of medical progress, efficiency, added value, and ultimately corporate profit. If we are going to eat from an animal source most of us would probably prefer to know exactly where the animal was reared. Perhaps we would find some relief knowing it had a good life on a small farm where it grazed on lush green hillsides. Even the staunchest meat eaters may be troubled by stories of disease-ridden slaughterhouses and feedlots coupled with media stories highlighting outbreaks of food-borne illness. But, what does it mean when we begin to genetically alter animals, not solely to provide larger fillets, but to provide sources of human drugs and perhaps even organs? Some companies, such as Infigen and Advanced Cell Technologies, are leading the rush towards animal "pharming". While certain obstacles, albeit impermanent ones, have been put in the way of using public funds to clone or conduct germ line alteration research, the research and manufacturing of cloned and genetically modified fauna in the private sector is occurring at breakneck speed. Infigen, a privately held biotechnology company, is at the forefront
of the attempts to enhance agriculture and human health using molecular reproductive
technologies. Their aims span everything from drugs to better mozzarella cheese
for your pizza. In the not so distant future, farmers will be able to attend
their favorite mid-western dairy shows and choose from a glut of cloned heifers
designed to churn out everything from monoclonal antibodies to specialty cheeses.
Even so-called natural products could be over-produced. Any calf having a
particularly high-value based end product could be cloned, producing a whole
herd capable of manufacturing any desired product, be it Factor VIII In the cloned livestock world to be, a farmer could clone a herd of cattle which yield epicurean extra sharp cheddar and then distinguish his herd's consumptive product by giving it an appellation much like those conferred on a high quality wine growing region. Given the public's general suspicion towards genetics, I doubt we would find a cheese labeled µ-1,3 EX, however we may be able to purchase Charlene's Consummate Cheddar. Of course, the cheese would be from Charlene the Holstein, and her many identical elves all working in factory fashion, churning out cheese using the most efficient and predictable technology of the time. That we have reached a point in our American Zeitgeist where we collectively
reorganize the genetic structure of our animals (and soon ourselves) is both
our greatest technical achievement and perhaps our greatest flaw. We have
long acknowledged the influence of environment on our beings. But what if
we begin simultaneously changing the internal and external world at the same
time? Even as we become infatuated with self-propagating techniques for mice,
cows, and even rare endangered species, we fail to remember a fundamental
maxim: the exceptionality of all organisms rests in the uniqueness of their
constitutions. Even if you can morally accept the transmogrification of the
structures of livestock for human purposes, whatever they may be, we must
wonder if we are truly improving upon nature. When we clone herds and flocks
of animals identical in the composition, we are creating organisms that are
stagnant in their ability to adapt to environmental or evolutionary change.
In doing so, we may be creating an evolutionary end-game. The trade-off for
an ultimate goal of predictability and precision, may well be evolutionary
stasisóand who said we were ready to |